ESCANABA - Delta County will receive even more assistance in its quest to foster healthier communities and residents. The county, along with Menominee County, was recently awarded a special series of grants through the Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and Environmental Change (ACHIEVE).
In February, Delta County joined the ranks of 93 other ACHIEVE communities nationwide. According to Casey Young, ACHIEVE member and community health promotion coordinator at Public Health Delta and Menominee Counties, the Delta county group was formed through the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).
"We received notification at the beginning of February that we were awarded a national grant from NACCHO, which is a national partner of ACHIEVE" explained Young. "The name of the grant is called ACHIEVE - basically, the purpose of the grant was to develop a team, a coalition, of people throughout the community in order to promote some of this policy and environmental change."
In becoming a member of ACHIEVE, Delta County was able to form a CHART (Community Health Action Resource Team) and is now eligible to take part in a three-year grant process. According to Young, the first grant of $15,000 was used to cover the travel and expenses incurred by attending two ACHIEVE conferences.
"For year two and three, we are looking at, hopefully, $25,000, maybe more, depending," said Young. "But for year two and three, that money will be used for implementation for some of the things we've decided as a group that we want to do in the community."
In order to form the required community assessment and action plans of the ACHIEVE grants, most of the eight-member Delta County CHART, including Young, recently attended an informational conference in San Diego, Calif. The group received a vast amount of advice from the conference, notes Young, especially involving community-wide policy change.
"We learned how important policy, system and environmental change is and how it can really have a lasting impact on peoples' health," she explained. "A lot of what we have been focused on in the past has been program specific, which is great on an individual level, but in order to create sustainable change in the community, it really is important to get the policy and environment changed so people have more opportunities to participate in physical activity or they have an easier time making the healthier choice."
According to Young, the group is currently attempting to pinpoint the area in which they would like to focus their efforts. The group may choose to work in any number of places, including schools or recreational facilities within the city.
Among the areas of primary concern - preventing obesity and encouraging healthy habits.
"As a group we have a lot of really great ideas, we know from the work that we do that obesity is a big concern, nationally and locally," Young said. "So we know that we want to promote good nutrition; we want to look at improving physical activity."
Smoke-free communities are another area of interest for the Delta County CHART. Not only are they concentrating on small changes, like posting "no-smoking" signs in parks, they are also looking for more policy changes.
"Just recently, the state of Michigan went smoke-free, and that is a really good example of some policy change that can impact peoples' behaviors," Young explained. "The goal behind that policy was to prevent second-hand smoke...I think ultimately it will decrease the amount that people smoke, if not helping them to quit."
In order to incorporate the changes being pursued by members of ACHIEVE, Young said efforts must appeal to residents of the community.
"If we set some of these policies now, 10 or 20 years from now, they will be already in place and people will be continuing to follow these policies. It really is shaping the future of where we are going, not just impacting the behavior right now," she said. "We have already made some good progress, but some of the things that we would like to continue looking at would be the opportunities for physical activity."
"The city of Escanaba has been pretty good at developing in their plans their vision for the community," she added. "They would like to see more bike paths, more connected sidewalks, so we are encouraging that as much as we can."
Other changes already being utilized are the improved access to the Escanaba Farmer's Market and the development and promotion of community gardens.
"I feel really good about the group that we have - it is going to be a good team," said Young. "People have a vested interest in a lot of the things that we are doing. We are all going to be working toward our common goal pretty well."